Mark Rumsey

Mark Rumsey grew up in Kansas and got his first radio job at age 17 in the town of Abilene, where he announced easy-listening music played from vinyl record albums.

Later stops in his radio career found him reporting and anchoring local news at stations in Chattanooga, Tennessee and Charlotte.

Mark joined the world of public radio in 1997 as News Director at WFAE. Today, he continues to serve as local host for All Things Considered and produces WFAE’s Public Conversations, an ongoing series of community forums.

If Mark turns up missing on a nice autumn day, you might find him on the hiking trails at North Carolina’s Stone Mountain State Park. If he disappears for a week or two – check the Tel Aviv airport. Perhaps he’s found a way to again pursue his passion for traveling to the Holy Land.

Ways to Connect

Governor Pat McCrory has scheduled the special primary election to replace 12th district Congressman Mel Watt for May 6th. That’s the same date as the primary for all races. And it means even a temporary replacement for Congressman Watt won’t be chosen until November. That has upset a lot of the governor’s critics. They accuse him of playing politics, because the majority minority district is a Democratic district. The leader of the state NAACP says the move denies people their constitutional right to representation. The governor says he’s doing what makes the most sense.

The nomination of North Carolina congressman Mel Watt to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency cleared a key procedural hurdle Tuesday.

The U.S. Senate voted 57-40 to break Republican opposition to Watt’s nomination. Democrats were able to move the nomination forward thanks to a change in Senate rules that Democrats pushed through last month in response to numerous blocked nominations.

About 100 Red Wolves roam a five-county area of northeastern North Carolina, as part of a federal program started in 1987 aimed at restoring the rare species. Red Wolves were once common throughout the Southeastern U.S., but clashes with the human population and bounties on the animals drove their numbers down sharply by the early 1900s. Red Wolves were declared extinct in the wild in 1980.

Today, North Carolina's Red Wolves have federal protection, but at least nine have been shot this year. One problem is, hunters confuse them with coyotes, prompting calls for North Carolina to suspend coyote hunting where the wolves live.WFAE's Mark Rumsey spoke with David Rabon, coordinator of the Red Wolf Recovery Program for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The North Carolina Department of Education Thursday released the school-by-school results of last year’s end of grade and end of class tests. It was the first year for more rigorous exams that test for national Common Core standards. WFAE’s Duncan McFadyen gives All Things Considered host Mark Rumsey a breakdown of the numbers.

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper has been speaking out lately on a range of issues, at times disagreeing with laws signed by Republican governor Pat McCrory. Cooper is a Democrat who plans to run for governor in 2016. His public comments of late have sparked tensions with the McCrory administration and criticism from state GOP leaders. For some analysis of the attorney general's role, WFAE's Mark Rumsey spoke with James Tierney, a former Maine AG who now heads the National State Attorneys General Program at Columbia Law School in New York.

You may remember seeing a billboard on Charlotte's Billy Graham Parkway a few years ago that read: “One Nation. Indivisible." Conspicuously missing was the phrase “Under God." The group behind that campaign is holding a convention in Charlotte this weekend, designed for what organizers call a growing community of atheists and agnostics in the region. WFAE's Mark Rumsey spoke with Jennifer Lovejoy, acting president of the Carolinas Secular Association.

A novel called The Bondwoman's Narrative was a best-seller in 2002 - about 150 years after it was written. The book is believed to be the first novel penned by an African-American woman. The author was listed as "Hannah Crafts," but no one knew the identify of the writer. That has changed, thanks to the research of Winthrop University professor Gregg Hecimovich. He's the chairman of the Winthrop's English Department. He's identified the author as a former North Carolina slave named Hannah Bond, and his findings are endorsed by prominent scholars such as Henry Louis Gates. Professor Hecimovich spoke to WFAE's Mark Rumsey about his research:

Volunteer chaplains serving the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department are making themselves available this week to any police officer who wants to talk about Saturday's fatal shooting of Jonathan Ferrell by CMPD officer Randall Kerrick. Pastor Terry Sartain has been a chaplain to Charlotte's police force since 2004. WFAE's Mark Rumsey spoke with Sartain about his role in the aftermath of the shooting.